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Technology Stocks : WCOM -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: HH who wrote (9082)	2/5/2002 1:12:05 PM
From: JakeStraw	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

Treasury Secretary Wants More CEO Accountability siliconinvestor.com Feb 5 9:42am ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, speaking as the Enron scandal unfolds, said on Tuesday the Bush administration would push for more accountability from corporate chieftains in a planned revamp of business disclosure requirements. "The key is accountability and responsibility for corporate officers and directors, accountants and auditors. We are committed to the president's call to hold corporate America to the 'highest standards of conduct,"' O'Neill said in testimony prepared for delivery to the Senate Banking Committee. "I am confident that the working group's recommendations will point the way to strengthening our disclosure regime," he said. The Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, have been charged by President Bush with finding ways to close loopholes in the nation's corporate accounting system in the wake of the collapse for former energy trading giant Enron Corp. . O'Neill's remarks came a day after the Wall Street Journal reported the Treasury chief favored barring executives from using insurance to cover the costs of shareholder lawsuits. A ban on that type of insurance would be important "so there is no ambiguity about the responsibility of executive officers -- that they have a responsibility to know and a responsibility to share" information with shareholders, the paper quoted O'Neill as saying. In his testimony on Tuesday, O'Neill also urged schools to take up financial literacy within the framework of teaching basic reading and math skills. "Teaching a child how to balance a checkbook reinforces basic addition and subtraction. Learning how to calculate compound interest provides an excellent way to exercise knowledge of percentages," he said.

To: HH who wrote (9082)	2/5/2002 2:12:29 PM
From: Rob S.	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 11568

I'm not trying to stir up trouble here. It should be pretty obvious that investor trust in corporate management and accounting practices is what has the market upset . . don't kill the messenger. WCOM and the lovely darling telecomm and equipment sectors look close to clashing to a bottom. The VIX indicator still has not reached a level indicating an overall panic. Is has been at a level of around 23 but has spike up a bit during the last three trading days. When it has hit that low the past 9 times the market has sold off. This time has been no exception. Investors were complacent and had built up high hopes for the coming year that apparently won't be met. That's particularly true in the telecomm and wireless telecomm sectors because of the remaining debt structure and soft end markets for products and services. It remains a buyer's market for long distance and data services and recent bankruptcies have not helped to dry up capacity. Under a better scenario WorldCom, Sprint and others would now be in a position to acquire their bankrupt competitors for 10c on the dollar. But now they are faced with these companies being in bankruptcy protection from their creditors and able to price their services low. But before long this sector will wash out and by the end of the year the end markets should have reached a level of absorbtion and cleaning of competitive forces that an up trend develops. As much as I don't care for some of the strategies and excess leveraging of WCOM and some others in this sector, the stock looks ready for at least a modest rebound in the coming weeks imo.